Festas e Celebrações: um estudo sobre visualidades da escola.

by Siqueira de, Ana Lucia

Abstract (Summary)

This research paper investigates the celebrations of a public school in the City of Goiânia State of Goiás analysing the inclusion of those practices in the school culture and focusing particularly on the visual aspects that compose those events The theoretical background to this paper is based on the concepts of Visual Culture thestudy field which inquires into the ways how images ?talk? about individuals their practises and institutions and also about the meanings built up during the process ofvisualizing images The visualities of the parties and celebrations are the axis that allows putting in relevancethe distinct ways through which the school culture changes according to quotidian or celebratory moments Besides that the visualities also expose the relations between thiscommunity individuals and the ?images? that they elaborate towards learning apprenticeship education and institution The school place that produces and receives visualities finds in the realization of parties and celebratory events an important way to establish and extend the dialogue with the community The data for this paper were collected during the first semester of the year 2003 At that time I observed a class and took part of all celebrations that happened at school But for the present investigation I chose four which I consider being the principal ones: Mother?s Day Father?s Day Easter Celebration and June Festival (a Brazilian Celebration) During the events I collected impressions and spontaneous speeches of the participants in general and also of an specific group of students From these data emerged the questions and topics that I present in this study such as: (1) the multiple character of celebrations as an space for communication between its participants; (2) the party as a moment for social and cultural apprenticeship; (3) the nature of the visualities present in the celebrations such asindicators of changes into the school environment; (4) the visualities such as sense creators and affection motivators in the observed community